Monday, June 4, 2007

RHUBARB COBBLER

During the warmers days, I love to prepare seasonal baked fruit desserts that I usually eat as the main dish, for supper...

At the moment, we can still buy rhubarb (not for much longer, though), so I naturally chose this wonderful vegetable (no, it's not a fruit!) in order to make this lovely speciality.

A cobbler (see infos) is an old-fashioned traditional English and American baked cake-like dessert that generally contains fruits. It's name derives from the verb "to cobble" which means "to patch" something roughly. You can quite understand why it got called in this way when you know that it is a kind of patchwork combining fruits and cake dough that are hastily put together without much of a fuss. The dough of a cobbler can either be poured on top of the fruits or just simply used as a crust that will be covered with fruits. To be honest with you, there's not much difference as both ways give a very similar result...

This "Rhubarb Cobbler" is absolutely delicious! It is very light terxtured, fluffy, slightly caramelized on the edges, crispy on it's top and has a smooth/moist center. The spices add the right tinge of flavor needed, thus not being overpowering, but just mingling delicately with the rhubarb and balancing it's singular taste in the most perfect way. Every spoonful of this treat is gorgeously wicked and extremely comforting, and that submerging taste of butter sends you straight to another dimension. Amazing!

Method:1. Preheat the oven to 190° C (375° F).2. Grease a 23 x 23cm (9 x 9 Inch) square pan.3. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside.4. Beat together the eggs and 1 cup sugar, until the mixture is pale and frothy.5. Then, add the butter and milk.6. Mix energically until well blended.7. Add the flour mixture, stirring just to combine.8. Pour the batter into the greased pan.For the rhubarb topping:9. In a medium-sized saucepan, simmer together the lemon juice, sugar, vanilla extract, Amaretto, water, cinnamon and ginger for 3-4 minutes.10. Add the rhubarb and stir to coat with the syrup.11. Pour this hot fruit mixture over the batter in the pan.12. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the cobbler, until skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Remarks:You can make this cobbler with many different fruits, alone or in combination (strawberries, peaches, apricots, cherries, pears, plums, blueberries, etc...) as long as you keep the same quantity as with the rhubarb.If you choose other fruits, you might want to change the spices and flavoring used for the topping.Whatever fruit you use should be peeled, cored and cut into bite-sized pieces. Berries just need to be hulled...

Serving suggestions:Serve hot/warm or even at room temperature with unsweetened condensed milk/evaporated milk (my favorite, see infos), whipped cream or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I completely agree, rhubarb is always delicious! I have them in my garden, I've used some for compote this year and I'm looking forward to all the simple but delicious pies and rhubarbcreams I'm going to do this summer. Rhubarb is just so Swedish summer-like:)